Florida dog turns up in Dearborn two years after going missing

The owner said her prayers were answered and you get the feeling that the dog might feel the same way.

Two years ago, Zeus vanished from his home in Ocala, Florida. His owner, Debbie Petranck spent the past 24 months searching high and low throughout central Florida to no avail. Then she got a phone call.

The call was made from the Friends of the Dearborn Animal Shelter. Somehow, the little pug-nosed terrier wound up over 1,000 miles away in metro Detroit, two years after he vanished.

"Oh dear God I have missed you so much," said Petranck as she hugged and kissed Zeus, who returned the affection. "I put an ad in the newspaper every week about my missing Zeus," Petranck said.

Unbeknownst to her Zeus had shown up at a fast food restaurant in Ocala - a man took him in and later moved to Michigan. But last week, Zeus wandered off again and ended up in the Dearborn shelter - at Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter.

Using the microchip detection device, they checked for a microchip and found one in his neck. It was Zeus and he had finally been found.

"As we always do, we scan animals that come in stray to see if there's an owner," said Elaine Green, Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter.

Bingo - there was. A woman named Debbie - more than a thousand miles away.

"She was ecstatic when we called," said Elaine Greene, Executive Director, Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter. "She was shocked and she was really in disbelief.

"This is one of those rewarding occasions that a joyful reunion results from a stray dog being brought into our care, it's what we always hope for them."

"I prayed that the right people would get involved," said Petranck. "And they obviously did. I have my dog back."

Petranck drove all night to get here. She was pulled over twice for speeding - she got one ticket - the other officer let her go after she showed him the front page of her local paper.

"It's been on the radio, it's been on the newspaper's front page," she said. "I think Ocala knows Zeus."

Now metro Detroit knows him too, and he's helped us all learn the importance of a microchip

"That's the miracle of getting your animals micro chipped," Greene said. "If it hadn't been for the microchip, Zeus would never be able to go back to his mom."